Not all members of the Assassins of the Chinese Brotherhood are brothers.
Ubisoft is working on a third upcoming standalone Assassin’s Creed — only this one is a downloadable sidescrolling action game set in China. Unlike Unity for the new-gen consoles or Rogue for last gen, Assassin’s Creed: Chronicles — China has players taking control of a woman. The female assassin, named Shao Jun, parkours across the Great Wall of China and uses martial arts to take out enemies. It’s due for an early 2015 release, and it comes included with Unity’s downloadable-content season pass.
Set in the 16th century, Chronicles: China brings some new elements to the Assassin’s Creed franchise. For the first time, Ubisoft is implementing a fantastical art style that is reminiscent of paintings from that time.
While a smaller Assassin’s Creed game that complements the full 3D experiences with new art is an interesting way to sell season passes, Ubisoft is also countering some criticism it faced during the Electronic Entertainment Expo tradeshow in June. During that conference, Unity director Alex Amancio explained that his team had to cut women from the co-op portion of the game because they would require extra work to animate. As it stands, everyone just plays their own version of the main male hero Arno from the single-player campaign in co-op.
As it turns out, the company was animating a new woman character — but they were saving her for a completely new game.
Check out Shao Jun in action in the video below. The Chronicles: China portion starts at around 2 minutes into the clip:
Assassin’s Creed: Unity debuts Nov. 11 in North America on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. It takes place in Paris, and during the French Revolution.